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Volatile acidity and barrels

I usually make red wine in 6-8 gallon batches, always from grapes. About 3-4 years ago, I started aging in small french oak barrels, initially with really good results. But lately, I'm getting a definite acetone smell in my reds, especially the cabs and nebbiolos. I think I'm coming to the same conclusion that I've read in lots of places...that "small barrels are like wooden sailboats...the idea sounds great, but in practice they're more trouble than they're worth". Usually, I just empty one barrel, wash it out with hot water, then re-fill with another wine.

I have a couple of questions:

  1. Once you have a problem with volatile acidity in a barrel, is there any recourse other than to throw away the barrel?

  1. When you empty your barrels, if you don't have another wine ready to put right back in the emptied barrel, what do you put in it?

  2. If I wanted to treat my barrels with something, what would you use?

  1. What is your experience with small barrels?

Thanks,

Lee

Reply to
Lee
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Not that I am aware of.

You can store dry but should burn some sulphur in it occasionally.

I have been using a 10 gallon barrel for about seven years now. It has never been empty. I bottle and refill immediately. I think one of the best things to do is keep your pH around 3.5 and periodically check your free SO2 levels as barrels don't retain the SO2 for very long. Small additions every two to three months is preferable to a large dose after a longer time interval. If you do not have an AO apparatus for checking your free SO2, you can send out to a lab. I am going to get the AO test equipment this year.

Reply to
Paul E. Lehmann

I'm with Paul on all that but I do make red wine vinegar also. If you are sure it's acetone I do think it's usefulness as a wine barrel is over but it's usefulness as a vinegar barrel has just begun. Everything that makes a small barrel a pain for wine plays to vinegar. Homemade vinegar is pretty awesome.

I know this sounds like a huge waste but the only thing I can think of to recover them is to take them apart, scrape them to bare wood and re- toast.

Joe

Reply to
Joe Sallustio

Reply to
AxisOfBeagles

First, thank you for an excellent link. But I fail to see where the article suggests that ozone is a treatment for tainted barrels, other than the Fresno study showing that ozone killed a brett infection. If the taint, as indicated in the OP, is a VA problem (such as an acetobacter contamination) then I still find no indication that ozone is a treatment for such.

I agree with the primary premise of the article - ozone is arguably the most effective barrel sanitizer available, imaprts no taint of it's own to the barrel, is environmentally less imapctful than many alternatives, and seems to have no adverse impact on the qualities of the oak that the winemaker desires. But other than the one study regarding Brett, this article does not seem to suggest that ozone is a treatment for barrel contaminations that result in VA in your wine. Does it?

Reply to
AxisOfBeagles

An 'acetone' smell in my experience is consistent with ethyl acetate, a reaction between acetic acid and ethanol. An acetobacter infected barrel can result in ethyl acetate in the wine.

As discussed by others' responses, ozone will reduce acetobacter in a barrel. Whether or not it can eliminate it depends on how deep into the oak the acetobacter has penetrated. If it is surface or near-surface, ozone is very effective at killing the acetobacter.

Ozone 'eats' (oxizides) the wood as well as killing bacteria, so it gets used up. This limits the efficiency of ozone for killing deeply penetrated acetobactor infection.

So it is worth a try to use ozone (via ozonated water spray) to see if it 'recovers' your barrel. It will likely work, but may not in all cases.

I've used ozonated water in industrial applications as well as for washing wine barrels. In addition to being a strong sanitizer/disinfectant, ozone is very aggressive at degrading plastics and rubber via attacking the carbon-carbon double bonds. It also slowly oxidizes cellulosic materials like oak. Ozone is a double-edged sword.

Gene

Lee wrote:

Reply to
gene

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